A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Paideia meets demos
Posted February 1, 2013 by Politis
TechCrunch has announced its pick of Coursera as the 2012 Crunchies’ Best Overall Startup. Their rationale: “because more than anything else our country is heading into a period where higher education and job training is not catching up with the pace of innovation, where the creative part of “creative destruction” has not yet overwhelmingly kicked in.” […]
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Greece’s state broadcaster and the politics of eternal discontent
Posted June 12, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Kostas A. Lavdas The news is plain and simple. The Greek government has shut down the public broadcaster ERT, calling it a “haven of waste.” While all 2,500 employees would be sacked, the government says they would be paid compensation and would be able to apply for work when the corporation relaunches as a […]
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Criminal matters
Posted October 30, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner There has been a lot of talk recently, both in Greece and in the US, about criminal behavior at the highest levels of political life. In the US, one party has allegedly sought to blackmail and extort the government in the recent standoff over the shut down of the federal government. Here […]
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Open the doors/where are the people?
Posted April 3, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Growing up my friends and I used to play a small game with our hands. We would start with our hands clasped, thumbs aligned, index fingers erect. “Here is the church/here is the steeple/open the doors/where are the people?” We would then interlock our fingers and perform the same series of steps: […]
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Participedia
Posted May 8, 2013 by Politis
Participedia is an open global knowledge community for researchers and practitioners in the field of democratic innovation and public engagement. “We live in a world in which citizens of most countries are asking for greater involvement in collective decisions. Many governments, non-governmental organizations, and even some corporations are responding by experimenting with ways to increase public […]
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Creativity sentenced to death
Posted February 8, 2013 by M P
By Maria Patsarika I never thought academic writing could be that frustrating until I started practicing it. And it’s not because I prefer live dialogue to print dialogue (although I do); writing is a pleasure, whether you are the author or the reader. It can be as natural, direct and emotive as a conversation between […]
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Open data: what it is, what it is not
Posted July 29, 2013 by Politis
This clip, courtesy of The Guardian, provides a nice overview of the state of thinking about open data, which advocates argue will revolutionize political practice in positive fashion in the months and years to come. See for yourself whether you agree.
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A cynic’s guide to Greek politics
Posted January 26, 2013 by Politis
At Politis we try to encourage our readers to look for things positive regardless of how bleak a situation might appear. It is always instructive to distinguish between fairy tales and cynicism, however. A recent column by Andy Dabilis in Greek Reporter borders on the latter. Dabilis pulls no punches, and this is to his […]
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I am a citizen
Posted November 5, 2016 by Politis
The team at Politis debated whether to share the video below on the blog. In the end consensus was reached that, yes, it was appropriate and worthwhile to do so. Seethe houghts of two of our number below, slightly edited and formatted for posting. I am in favor… after all it can change society’s […]
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Greek urban warriors
Posted February 26, 2015 by DW
The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service and Ianos Bookstore Cordially invite you to a presentation of Greek Urban Warriors: resistance and terrorism 1967-2014 by John Brady Kiesling Athens: Lycabettus Press, 2014 Monday, March 2, 2015, 7 PM Ianos Bookstore, Aristotelous 7, Thessaloniki Moderator: David Wisner The event will take place […]
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How to make policy that is good and represents what people need and want
Posted October 18, 2013 by Politis
An excerpt below from an article by Brian Heaton in Governing relative to an Online Public Policy Simulator to be put into use in the US state of Massachusetts. “Estimating the financial impact of a new public policy is an uncertain science at best, even for the most experienced government official. What if [policy makers] […]
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Football activism
Posted June 23, 2013 by DW
A striking scene from the Copacabana.
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Niarchos Foundation Conference on Philanthropy
Posted June 26, 2013 by Politis
The Second Annual Stavros Niarchos Foundation International Conference on Philanthropy will take place in Athens on June 27th and 28th. The conference will be broadcast live on the Stavros Niarchos Foundation website (www.SNF.org). Featured speakers include Andreas Dracopoulos, Anders Aslund, Olga Kefalogianni, George Soros, Garry Kasparov, and many more.
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Big state
Posted July 8, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Jannis Papadimitriou Greece’s lenders have urged the country to reduce its excessive state apparatus. But few people trust that will be possible. Political clientelism and patronage have a long tradition in Greece’s administrative bodies. Back in the fall of 2012, the Greek coalition government under Conservative leader Antonis Samaras promised to lay off 15,000 […]
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News on the street
Posted November 8, 2013 by Politis
A picture says more than 1000 words, or so they say. And now, the news.
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Pictures at an exhibition
Posted June 9, 2014 by DW
“Would you vote for me? Exhibition of photographs State Museum of Contemporary Art — Warehouse B1, Port of Thessaloniki June 5-21 The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service was launched in 1999 to provide a forum for young people to explore the meaning and scope of public service in the contemporary […]
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World Homeless Day 2014
Posted October 10, 2014 by Politis
Purpose The purpose of World Homeless Day is to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the stage an ‘international day’ provides. How To Make a Difference educate people about homeless issues […]
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What is the public value framework?
Posted April 2, 2013 by Politis
“[T]ransparency, participation, and collaboration are best viewed as instrumental to the accomplishment of democracy in that they enable citizens to enact their various roles as citizens. That is, transparency is not an end citizens pursue for its own sake. Citizens may desire their government to be transparent, but that is largely because something else is […]
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Blockupy
Posted May 31, 2013 by KK
Newsworthy, I think… “Our main goal is to show that the regime that is governing Europe through this crisis is neither democratically legitimate nor acting in any responsible way for the people. It’s really working for profit. One of it’s symbolic places is the ECB – the place that has economic and financial reign over […]